Kimi Antonelli‘s storming, P19 to P1 victory at F1 2026 Italian GP will dominate the headlines, and rightly so. It made him the first Italian to win his home race since 1966. However, a few positions back, Lando Norris was fighting a battle of his own on the F1 Italian GP. It very nearly ended with more than just a scare.
Starting down in P8 after a difficult Saturday, Norris spent Sunday afternoon clawing his way forward. He was locked in a tense, increasingly feisty scrap with McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri for P4 by the closing laps. It came to a head before the second chicane, where Norris beloved he was forced onto the grass. He did not shy away from admitting how close it came to going wrong.
Norris on the moment his F1 race at Monza could have unravelled
Speaking afterwards in the print media pen, Lando Norris didn’t sugarcoat what had gone through his mind in the moment. However, he quickly made sure to point out Oscar Piastri did nothing wrong.
“No, it was okay. I still need to review things, but I think it’s just a perception of when you’re in the car, when someone’s opening the gap a little bit, going straight, you get that perception of when you’re going 200 miles per hour. That’s all. I think what he did was fair.
“It’s just a – when you’re in the moment, you’re half on the grass, you realise how quickly things can end pretty badly. Just in the head of the moment, but from our side it was fine, it was a good battle, so a good result from a tough race.”
The moment in question came as Norris hunted down Piastri on lap 51, with the pair having done some yo-yo racing in the previous couple of tours. The Australian had fallen into his clutches after being unable to match the pace of Max Verstappen who had fresher rubber by 25 laps.
Norris duly completed the move before the Ascari chicane of the F1 Italian GP track. He did it on the final lap to secure P4, with Piastri classifying fifth.
Both drivers were diplomatic about it once the dust settled. It was a rare moment of late-race McLaren-on-McLaren theatre in a season where the head-to-head between the pair has been tight. Ending up on the grass was a reminder of exactly how little margin there is for error at 300 km/h at Monza.
A frank admission from Norris at the F1 Italian GP
The bigger story of Norris’ weekend at the F1 Italian GP, though, wasn’t the fight with Piastri. It was the gulf to the front. Antonelli’s win came alongside a Mercedes 1-2. George Russell crossing the line four seconds behind after leading long stretches of the race. Verstappen completed the podium for Red Bull. McLaren, by contrast, were nowhere near that fight, despite coming off of two wins back to back.
Norris was candid about why.
“I think we’ve seen in the past races, like Red Bull Ring, that the Red Bull can be very fast in those types of circuits, with good top speeds and stuff, and that was again proven today. And they were better than us, but it was clear that the Mercedes are still in a league of their own compared to us.
“We won by bigger margins over the last few races, which they were still fighting for good points at those times, and we were not even close to fighting for a top two today. Just frustrating, but we said it before the weekend. I think we’ve seen what our expectation was, and we still have work to do, which we knew. It’s nothing that’s a surprise. We just need to really work on the slow and medium speed corners, the stability of the car, which is just not good enough, and some straight line speed.
“And if we can sort that, then a lot of stuff is sorted.”
Russell won the Austrian round back in June with Verstappen splitting the Mercedes. It was a result that flagged how well Red Bull’s package suited high-speed, low-downforce layouts. Monza, F1’s fastest lap of the calendar, only reinforced what Norris had meant.
The make or break of the race: no slipstream, no race
Norris was asked whether the opening laps with the leaders disappearing up the road had represented something close to a worst-case scenario. He did not dispute it, and explained exactly why the middle of the field was so brutal to survive.
Having tried to pass Pierre Gasly, he cut the chicane and had to give the place back. Norris eventually got the move done but then it took him a good while to get up to Lewis Hamilton and his teammate, before passing both.
The 2025 World Champion lamented the pace without slipstream and overtake mode.
“I think what made or break my race today was just every time I lost to the guys ahead, and didn’t have a slipstream. When I was fighting with Pierre [Gasly], and obviously we lost two seconds, I lost the gap to the guys ahead. I was slowly catching them, but as soon as we were in clean air, we were just shocking.
“Our pace was just dreadful. We needed someone to kind of pull us along, and then we could compete, because then we were more on a level playing field, compared to them. I think on a day like today, it was almost a good thing to not be ahead for too often, because generally you would always go backwards.
“But then when you were behind, you always felt like you could go forwards. It was always a tough position to be in, and sometimes you just had to be a little bit patient. For me, that worked on the final two laps. I think P4 was the best we could achieve, and P4 and P5 for us as a team is also good.”
Analysis
For now, the takeaway from Monza is a familiar one. Norris and McLaren F1 left the Italian GP with a respectable haul, a late grass moment that could have been far worse, and a list of what still needs fixing.
